Friday, December 4, 2009

Thank You All!

I wanted to take a few words here (actually more than a few) to thank those who stopped by and offered their insights after yesterday's call for help. The answers you gave yesterday have me deep in thought at a number of different levels. I have written down the reasons you give for running on a piece of paper (and will continue to do so as new ones are offered) and have been mulling over them for a while now.

One thing about me - for better or worse I am a goal driven person. I don't just go hike. I'm out to climb a mountain. I don't just climb a mountain. I'm out to climb the highest one around. It's a trait that leads to some destructive behavior now and then, but it's also a trait that keeps me focused and allows me to achieve what I set out to do. And it occurred to me about 30 minutes ago that the one thing I can't tell you right now is: "I don't just run. I'm out to ......"

So there you go. I need to revisit my goals. A year ago the answer to the sentence above was "I'm out to get in shape to climb Mt. Whitney." Well, I accomplished that. Along the way I received a *ton* of benefits - I'm carrying about 50 pounds less that I was, I ran (okay -slogged) through a couple of marathons, hiked some neat trails in the local mountains. But those are all tactical. They contributed to the goal, but they weren't goals in themselves. Will I stop running? NO WAY! But the way that I answer the question above will determine *how* I run. The plan to drop 40 pounds looks a lot different that than the plan to BQ.

Speaking of running, I ended up doing my session on the track last night (track workouts in the AM are a bit of a problem because the school uses the track). The plan was 4X800 with 400 rest. I pushed a little, but didn't feel like I was killing myself:

I left pretty tired, but really didn't think much about it until I looked at the last time I ran 800s. These are all 10 to 20 seconds faster than last August. Yes - like three months ago! What's happening here? Am I becoming a Speedy McSpeederson (Sorry Jeri! Had to steal it!). Total workout including warm up and warm down was six miles.

10 comments:

Bummer, I missed the conversation yesterday. That'll teach me to miss a day or two of blogs. However, I'm still going to add my 2 cents. I read something in Triathlete mag a few months ago about goals and getting to the core of them. The example was this:

Someone works out in the morning because it invigorates him for work. So, why did he want to be invigorated? Because it helped him work harder and succeed. And why was that so important? Because it allowed him to provide for his kids in a way he didn't have when growing up. (ficticious example) So, when he had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning, thinking of his kids and providing for them made it easier.

I guess the lesson was to drill down in your goals and find out what is at the core. I haven't found my core yet.

Thank you Glenn for yesterday's (and for all) your posts. It got me to thinking about goals for the year and which ones I need to set...and I do need to set some. I know that without a goal in mind, I am much less likely to be motivated to run.

Nice pace on the 800s! I'm just impressed that you do track workouts on your own. If it weren't for the track club, I don't think I'd ever do them.

Great Job with the 800's. I just recently got a jolt and now my runs are faster. You can read my latest post for more. But, Great Job Glenn. Keep it up! And thanks back to you for having a cool blog site and keeping the posts coming!